An Ordinary Hero
by KyraTheHuntress
Summary: Not everyone has fancy superpowers or tons of money. Sometimes you don't need any of that to be a hero. A story of an ordinary citizen who rises to the call when his city is in danger of an extraterrestrial force. One-shot!


**A/N: Just a little idea I had re-watching** _ **The Avengers**_ **one afternoon. Might continue this if enough people want me to, but I don't plan on it.**

The day started off well enough for Cody Andrews, a resident advertising agent working in New York. He took the subway downtown, stopped for a quick bite to eat and some coffee to wake himself up, and took the elevator up to the fifth floor where his office was.

"Hey, Pat," he greeted the secretary, Patricia Summers, who gave him a friendly wave before returning to whatever she was working on on her computer. Sitting down, Cody allowed himself a few seconds of rest before turning his monitor on.

"Andrews!" his boss called over the system. Cody sighed and pressed the button to talk.

"Yes, Mr. Walters?"

"I need you to look over some future plans for the company's advertising to try to get sales to rise up again. I've already sent you an email, so get on it!" he ordered. Cody replied "yes sir, right away," and went to check his inbox.

The plans were basically like the last year's ones, with some advertising towards younger kids to "reach a broader demographic." Cody thought they were just redundant as anything.

He emailed his boss about his initial thoughts, trying to be as polite as possible, and offered suggestions on how they could be more innovative instead of rehashing old techniques.

During his lunch break, he called his girlfriend, Georgie, to see how she was doing studying medicine abroad in Europe.

"Oh, it's absolutely beautiful here," she answered. Cody smiled at that, thinking of her watching the sun set over the Mediterranean and traveling to all the places he wished he could go. "I wish you didn't have to stay across the pond."

"Yeah, if only," Cody mused. He'd been visiting family for the past few months before getting his job opportunity and moving to the heart of the Big Apple, but by then Georgie already had everything scheduled. "You'll come visit me soon, right?"

"Of course I will. As soon as I'm finished over here, you'll be the first to know." That made him feel better. "I'll send you pictures of Italy, alright?"

"Okay. I'm almost off break now. I'll talk to you later," he said his goodbye, but didn't hang up just yet. "And Georgie?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you too, Cody." She hung up first, and Cody was left sitting at a small table at a cafe with half a hamburger still the plate in front of him. His mind an ocean away, he looked up to the clear blue sky just as a blur raced across his field of view. He didn't exactly think much of it, figuring it was just a bird, and turned down to finish his lunch.

He turned out to be _so_ wrong.

It really all began with him seeing the Iron Man flying near the Stark tower. Then came the bright blue beam tearing a hole in the sky.

Cody ran for cover. Ducking and rolling into a corner against the side of the cafe, he dared to look back at what was happening. He saw explosions in the sky, and others running for cover against blasts on the ground.

He didn't know what happened, but next thing Cody knew he was standing up and trying to control the chaos. "Go go go! Get underground and stay off the streets!" He directed, looking back at the next wave of intruders.

He should've been running. He should've been hiding. He should've been doing anything but standing in the middle of the road against these...whatever they were. But something stopped him. Time seemed to slow down as memories flashed before his eyes. He remembered the press conference he saw on the news, where Tony Stark said he was Iron Man. He remembered watching another report about a battle in New Mexico, where Thor, the God of Thunder, first appeared. He remembered wanting to be like them, fighting evil like them, protecting people, saving the city.

He wanted to be a hero like them.

Maybe that's why he started running against the crowd. Maybe that's why he started picking up debris from the ground and started throwing them at the flying alien things. Maybe that's why he didn't back down, even when they trained their laser guns on him.

He ducked for cover against a car, breathing heavily. He was never the most athletic person, but he made up for that in willpower. He saw police cars rushing towards the buildings already destroyed. He picked up one particularly large rock and slung it over the car, hitting a flying thing head on and causing it to crash. Panting, he glanced over his shoulder to see that the one he hit was now replaced with dozens of others coming towards him, and fast.

A black jet then flew overhead, lighting them up in a series of explosions. They were making a beeline towards Stark tower, Cody could see the blue portal opening from there. _That must've been where these things are coming from,_ he thought.

He watched with growing horror as the jet was shot down, landing somewhere to his left, then looked back up to see some giant, monstrous… thing enter from the portal.

"Okay, yeah, running's a good plan," he said to himself as he made a mad dash into a now-empty building. He needed a better weapon than rocks if there was going to be a chance against these guys, that was for sure. He now knew they weren't invincible, and that made him feel better, braver, than otherwise. He knew there was hope. There was a chance to win. He just needed a better weapon.

A growl made him turn around. He stared right at one of the aliens, its staff raised like a gun. Cody raised his hands slowly in surrender, hoping that meant the same on Earth as it did wherever this thing came from.

As the thing moved closer, Cody suddenly charged at it, grappling against the staff that fired a beam to his right. Caught by surprise, the creature lost its grip on the staff easier, allowing the human to wield it. Cody brandished the weapon as the creature cocked its head, seemingly unafraid. Cody shrugged and used the butt of the staff against his foe, knocking it over the head then sending it out the window with a blast as he learned how the weapon shot its laser beam.

"Alright, that'll work," he said, looking back out on the street as more aliens gathered, although their attention was drawn elsewhere. Cody shot a few in the back before they realized he was behind them, and ducked behind the building's corner once they figured out where he was.

He shot more down, but they kept coming closer the more he fired. Running back, he looked up to see more of the giant monsters flying around. He shot down on flying thing as lightning arched from the sky, and destroyed more of them up near the portal. Filled with energy once again, Cody hid out behind a flipped car, observing the superheroes flying around and taking out a lot of the opposing forces.

He turned back to see that the street was empty. Standing straight, he looked around at the now deserted place. He guessed the aliens had bigger fish to fry than a little civilian armed with a laser gun. And still, the battle wasn't over yet.

He still saw those flying things above, but they didn't train their guns on him anymore. He followed their trail down the street to protect whatever people were still above ground. Shooting one down, Cody took one look at the inner workings and decided it was better to just keep running.

The army had arrived on scene. He took cover behind their blockade, although he refused to release the staff. When he was asked to, he responded by shooting down a group of the flying things.

Turning back to the man, he weighed the staff in his hand. "Oh, I'm definitely keeping this." Cody then got in line behind the army men and helped them shoot down more flyers. They managed to down most of them, but more just kept coming and they were forced to fall back. Cody didn't argue.

He looked up as someone pointed to the sky, as what Cody recognized as a missile flew up into the portal. Then, all of the aliens suddenly fell lifeless onto the street, including the flyers and giant monsters. Then the portal closed.

There was a moment of stunned silence, then the crowd erupted in cheers. Cody smiled and laughed in relief, relaxing his grip and letting the staff still in his hand fall to the ground. He doubted that it still worked now that the aliens were dead.

Cody then checked his phone to see that he had several missed calls from Georgie, but he ignored them for now. He felt that this was one story he needed to tell in person.

In the aftermath, the populace praised the Avengers for their bravery during the fight. He was alright with that. Cody was no superhero, just a survivor. He let the heroes have their public praise and the spotlight; he didn't even tell that many people about the Battle in New York City.

Cody wasn't a superhero. He just protected his city. That was all.


End file.
